Art and Science of Laboratory Medicine. Clinical laboratory and biomedical science related news, abstracts and images for medical laboratory professionals, students and other laboratory geeks.

Art and Science of Laboratory Medicine

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Listeria-infected cold cuts kill 12 in Denmark

An outbreak of listeria tied to contaminated Danish meat has killed 12 people since September last year, with most of the deaths coming in the past three months, Danish health authorities said on Tuesday. The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries said the source of the outbreak was finally traced on Monday to a popular type of cold cut called Rullepolse, which means rolled sausage in Danish, produced by a food manufacturer near Copenhagen. Listeria can lead to fatal infections especially in young children, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems. Infection can have particularly harmful effects for pregnant women, including miscarriage and stillbirths.